Technetra: Tracking the Open Source Front

[ Thanks to Alolita Sharma for this link. ]

"Government officials around the world are engaged in the debate over the merits of using open source software (OSS) as compared to proprietary software (PS) developed by vendors who closely protect the intellectual property (IP) of their source code. Faced with serious issues of software piracy and security Asians, Latin Americans, Africans, and mid-Easterners all worry that they cannot pay intellectual property dues to developed countries (primarily the US) and be held hostage at trade treaty negotiations. Some countries, such as Germany and Taiwan, have decided to replace Windows and other commercial software products with open source applications. Other countries like Austria have renewed their commitment to commercial software for the time being, and yet others like India and the United States are straddling the fence. Here are examples of how some countries are dealing with the debate..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Linux Journal: Linux in Government: How to Misunderstand the Enterprise Linux Desktop(Jul 24, 2004)
• Linux Journal: Linux In Government: Interoperability(Jun 05, 2004)
• EU Info. Society: Cases of F/OSS Recognition or Adoption in Government and Public Administrations(Feb 02, 2004)